Meet Tom Everhart

Meet Tom Everhart

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Bursting with dazzling color, expressionistic imagination, and in-your-face proportions, Tom Everhart's paintings are the culmination of 20 years of close association with cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and the PEANUTS phenomenon.

The only fine artist authorized to artistically render the PEANUTS characters; Everhart had been a successful painter of large-scale landscapes before being asked to render drawings of the PEANUTS characters for a commercial project in 1980. With no background in cartooning, Everhart prepared for the task by projecting Schulz's comic strips onto a 25-foot wall in his studio for closer examination. He was stunned to discover that, blown up larger than life, Schulz's pen strokes closely connected to his own painting style. His immediate fascination with Schulz's "line" — and his remarkable ability to capture it with his own distinct interpretation — impressed Schulz and launched a friendship and collaboration that continued right up until Schulz’s death in February 2000.

In 1988, Everhart had the vision of taking the lovable PEANUTS gang to a new level of art — what one commentator would later dub "Expresstoonism." Ironically, Everhart was in the hospital with life-threatening cancer when the inspiration struck. But today, with his illness in remission, the 47-year-old California artist is pursuing his vision of the PEANUTS paintings with energy as irrepressible as his imagery.

Everhart's paintings have been exhibited at museums all over the world, including the Louvre in Paris. His exhibition schedule for 2000 included the Museu da Cidade in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Suntory Museum in Osaka, Japan.

Additionally, CBS television selected nine of Everhart’s paintings to be highlighted in a special on Charles Schulz hosted by Whoopi Goldberg in May.